This invention relates generally to mooring devices for securing a boat to a pole or other element at a dock, and more particularly, to a novel dock-looper device which is easy and convenient to handle and enables a boater to quickly park and secure a boat adjacent a dock.
Operators of small pleasure boats are often faced with the task of safely and easily bringing their boats to a stop adjacent a dock and then tying the boat to the dock with suitable dock lines or ropes. In the past, a boater often had to cast or throw a loose line to a person on the dock or attempt to throw a loop formed at the end of the line around a post or piling in order to secure the boat to the dock. As an alternative, some boats are supplied with boat hooks with which a person can grapple for a post while at the same time attempt to keep the boat from smashing against the post. These prior methods are unreliable and often result in damage to a person's boat or to other boats which may be docked nearby.
Various prior art devices have been suggested to assist in securing a boat to a post or piling such as the mooring devices illustrated in prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,224,404, 3,841,685, 3,878,808, 3,945,335, and 4,519,643. However, each of those devices suffers from inherent structural and functional disadvantages and, to applicant's knowledge, none of those has been successfully commercially adopted by the boating trade.